Joe Mazzulla

Atlantic Notes: Brunson, Harris, Grousbeck, Ainge, Achiuwa

December 26th, 2022 at 6:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The injury news regarding Jalen Brunson isn’t all that bad for Knicks fans who saw their point guard depart the Christmas Day loss to the Sixers during the second half. Brunson has a sore hip and is questionable to play against Dallas on Tuesday, the team tweets. Brunson has not missed a game since signing with the Knicks over the summer.

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Nets forward Joe Harris had an MRI on his sore left knee which revealed only swelling, Nick Friedell of ESPN tweets. Harris missed his second consecutive game on Monday and will also sit out the road game against Atlanta on Wednesday. The club is hopeful the injury will heal with rest.
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck told Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe that he insisted to former Celtics exec and current Jazz CEO Danny Ainge during his coaching search he couldn’t hire both Will Hardy and Joe Mazzulla away from Boston. Ainge, of course, chose Hardy as head coach. Mazzulla became the Celtics’ head man when Ime Udoka was suspended. Ainge was OK with Grousbeck’s demand. “They were very generous to give us permission to talk to them,” he said.
Raptors forward Precious Achiuwa practiced on Monday and could return sometime this week, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports tweets. Achiuwa is doubtful for Tuesday’s game against the Clippers. Achiuwa has been out since Nov. 9 with partial ligament tears in his right ankle.

Suns Notes: Slump, Jones, Paul, Mazzulla

December 9th, 2022 at 10:59am CST by Luke Adams

The Suns‘ philosophy following a bad loss is to “flush it,” but that’s harder to do when those bad losses come in consecutive games, writes Gerald Bourguet of GoPhnx.com. Having entered the week as the Western Conference’s top seed, the Suns were blown out in Dallas on Monday, then returned home and were thrashed by the Celtics on Wednesday. At one point in that second game, Phoenix trailed Boston by 45 points.

As Bourguet writes, the Suns are still 16-9 and deserve the benefit of the doubt for now, especially with Chris Paul just returning and Cameron Johnson still sidelined. But the lack of a reliable No. 2 scorer behind Devin Booker could become an issue, and the ongoing absence of former starting forward Jae Crowder, who is waiting to be traded, has been a problem as the team deals with injuries.

Here’s more on the Suns:

After losing their top spot in the West to the Pelicans, the Suns have two big games on tap in New Orleans on Friday and Sunday. Those games will give the team a good opportunity to show that its recent swoon was just temporary, says Greg Moore of The Arizona Republic. However, if the slump continues, president of basketball operations James Jones may face increasing pressure to make a roster move well before February’s trade deadline, Moore argues.
Although Wednesday’s loss to Boston was a disaster, Chris Paul‘s return provided a silver lining, especially given his postgame comments, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Paul said he “felt good” in his first appearance after a 14-game absence. “He looked good and talking to him after the game he felt good, most importantly,” Devin Booker said of his backcourt mate. “Coming off any injury no matter how much time you take off, you’re going to be a little hesitant getting back into it. He said he was pain-free, didn’t feel anything and he’s ready to go, so that’s good news.”
Monty Williams isn’t surprised by the success Joe Mazzulla is having in Boston, telling reporters this week that he tried to get the Celtics‘ current head coach to join his coaching staff near the start of his time in Phoenix. “He was a guy that was smart enough to not come here with us,” Williams said, according to Rankin. “I had heard about him through a number of people, and I talked to my representation about talking to him, but (the Celtics) thought so highly of him there, you couldn’t even talk to him.”

Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Barnes, Celtics, Simmons

December 9th, 2022 at 9:30am CST by Luke Adams

Rival executives are keeping a close eye this season on the Raptors, according to ESPN’s Zach Lowe (Insider link), who says those execs are “bracing for fireworks” if Toronto is still right around .500 as February’s trade deadline approaches. The club is currently 13-12.

As Lowe lays out, rival teams are uncertain about whether the Raptors intend to stick with forwards Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and Scottie Barnes long-term or if they’d eventually be open to moving one of them. There’s also a question about whether Fred VanVleet, who can become an unrestricted free agent in 2023, fits the vision of a team that is primarily made up of longer, more versatile athletes.

Raptors president Masai Ujiri has shown a willingness to shake things up in the past rather than settling for being a middle-of-the-road playoff contender, most memorably trading for Kawhi Leonard in 2018. Rival executives are curious to see whether how long he’ll be content to wait out the current group if it doesn’t take a major step forward, per Lowe.

Here are a few more notes from around the Atlantic:

Raptors fans frustrated by Scottie Barnes‘ up-and-down play this fall following his Rookie of the Year campaign last season should look to the evolution of Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for reassurance, says Eric Koreen of The Athletic. As Koreen observes, Tatum was less effective in his second season than his first, while Brown took a minor step backward in his third year, a reminder that a top prospect’s development isn’t always linear.
Revamping the offense after its struggles in last season’s NBA Finals was a primary focus all offseason for Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, even before he was promoted to replace Ime Udoka, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Some tweaks from the coaching staff and some personnel changes have helped turn Boston’s offense into the NBA’s best. According to Bontemps, the Celtics’ 120.8 points per game would be the highest average by any team in nearly 30 years, while the team’s 62.6 true shooting percentage would be an NBA record.
As expected, Nets swingman Ben Simmons is set to make his return from a calf strain on Friday following a four-game absence. He’s not listed on Brooklyn’s injury report for the game vs. Atlanta, notes Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link).

Celtics Notes: Tatum, Griffin, Brown, Mazzulla

December 7th, 2022 at 7:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

Early-season MVP talk hasn’t been a distraction, Celtics star Jayson Tatum told reporters, including Dana Scott of The Arizona Republic, in a media session before tonight’s game in Phoenix. Boston has the best record in the league at 20-5 and Tatum ranks fourth in scoring at 30.8 PPG, so he’s a natural candidate for the award but he’s not focused on it.

“It’s something that I’m aware of, but I think a lot of it has to do with our team’s success,” Tatum said. “I think I keep playing the way I am and everybody individually, and we keep complementing each other the way we are, and continue to win, then everybody’s going to get individually what they deserve. So I guess the main focus is to keep trying to be one of the best teams and keep trying to win and just get closer to our ultimate goal of getting back to the finals.”

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Blake Griffin isn’t playing regularly, but he has been effective whenever Boston has needed him, writes Jared Weiss of The Athletic. With Robert Williams injured, Griffin has been sharing center duties with Luke Kornet as backups to Al Horford. Griffin is only averaging 14.7 minutes in nine games, but his teammates rave about what he provides whenever he’s on the court. “To be able to see him come out and give the energy he’s been giving us, that’s all you can ask for,” Marcus Smart said. “It’s no wonder why everyone loves Blake. It’s no wonder why he’s on this team and he’s still here in this league. He understands what it takes to be a vet.”
Jaylen Brown, who was left out of the All-Star Game last season, questioned the league’s system for choosing reserves in an interview with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson of Bally Sports. “I think it should be more exclusive in regards to the decision-making that goes into the process because, to be honest, we have no idea how we make it,” Brown said. “We make it and then they say that there’s this large process, but the (players) union isn’t involved at all. So, as players and representatives of the organizations, I think that definitely we should have some say so.”
Joe Mazzulla talked to Marc J. Spears of Andscape about the challenges of being thrown unexpectedly into a head coaching role with one of the league’s best teams, offering an interesting perspective when asked about the possibility of having his interim label removed. “Whether you’re the interim or not, you’re always the interim,” Mazzulla said. “It goes back to what is the truth. The truth of the matter is it’s just a name. And whether I have a five-year deal or a one-year deal, I can be gone at any time.”

Monty Williams, Joe Mazzulla Named Coaches Of The Month

December 1st, 2022 at 8:06pm CST by Rory Maher

Suns head coach Monty Williams and Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla have been named the NBA’s coaches of the month for the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively, the league announced (via Twitter).

As previously mentioned, the NBA combined the games played in October and November for its initial monthly awards.

Williams, the reigning Coach of the Year, has led Phoenix to six straight victories and the West’s top seed thus far at 15-6. The Suns held the league’s top overall record (64-18) during the 2021/22 regular season and were expected to be good again in ’22/23, but Williams’ coaching certainly deserves recognition.

Phoenix currently has multiple key players sidelined — veteran forward Jae Crowder has yet to play this season as the Suns are trying to trade him; his replacement in the starting lineup, Cameron Johnson, underwent meniscus surgery and has only played eight games; and 12-time All-Star point guard Chris Paul will miss his 12th consecutive game on Friday with right heel soreness (Twitter link via Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports). Reserve guard Landry Shamet also missed seven games while in the concussion protocols, but returned to action last week.

Mazzulla, the youngest head coach in the league at 34 years old, has guided Boston to the league’s best record at 18-4. The Celtics hold the No. 1 seed in the East, two games ahead of the 15-5 Bucks.

Mazzulla’s NBA debut as a head coach has been quite impressive. In addition to navigating the drama surrounding the organization in the wake of head coach Ime Udoka‘s suspension prior to the season, big man Robert Williams and free agent addition Danilo Gallinari have yet to play in 2022/23. Williams is reportedly targeting a return by Christmas following a second knee surgery in 2022, but Gallinari will likely miss the entire season with a torn ACL.

Though he currently has an interim tag, Mazzulla is expected to eventually have the interim designation removed and sign a long-term contract to remain head coach of the Celtics — the only question is when, not if.

According to the NBA, the other coaching nominees in the West were Chauncey Billups, Mike Brown, Willie Green, Will Hardy, Taylor Jenkins and Michael Malone, while J.B. Bickerstaff, Mike Budenholzer and Rick Carlisle were nominated in the East.

Eastern Notes: Simmons, Smart, Heat Injuries, Knicks

November 29th, 2022 at 7:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Ben Simmons will miss his sixth game this season on Wednesday due to a sore left knee. Nets point guard Kyrie Irving said Simmons’ absences impact the club in many ways, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes.

“When he’s not out there we don’t have our point forward, our point guard, being able to initiate easy opportunities, push the ball in transition; so we’ll definitely miss him in the lineup,” Irving said. “Hopefully he comes back [soon], but if he’s dealing with it we just want him to get as healthy as possible and we’ll figure it out.”

We have more from the Eastern Conference:

In Joe Mazzulla, Celtics guard Marcus Smart feels he has a head coach that fully trusts him, he told Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. “I think once Coach put his trust in me, we’ve seen how it’s allowed me to blossom and this team to blossom,” Smart said. “So just having a coach that can believe in you and allow you to run the team like he needs you to, that means everything. And then on top of that him being a point guard, that’s just an extra bonus, because he understands the pressure that I have to go through as the point guard in making everybody else happy and sacrificing your own for the team.”
The Heat released their injury report for Wednesday’s game and there’s no less than a dozen names on the list heading into their showdown with the Celtics, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald tweets. Jimmy Butler, Victor Oladipo and Omer Yurtseven are listed as out, while Nikola Jovic, Dewayne Dedmon, Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin, Tyler Herro, Haywood Highsmith and Duncan Robinson received the questionable tag. Two other players are probable.
The most realistic path to improvement for the Knicks is still the trade route, Ian Begley of SNY TV opines. They’ll continue to seek out top talent and have a surplus of draft picks and some young players to offer teams. Stuck in mediocrity, the only question is whether they’ll make a big move before the trade deadline or wait until the offseason.

Celtics Notes: Horford, G. Williams, Brown, Mazzulla

November 19th, 2022 at 6:14pm CST by Arthur Hill

Al Horford has already left the Celtics once for more money and there’s a chance it might happen again next summer, writes Sean Deveney of Heavy. The 37-year-old Horford said this week that he’d like to play another two or three seasons, so he’ll be looking for a contract that covers that time. Whether that keeps him in Boston will depend on the salary he’s willing to accept.

Deveney talked to a Western Conference executive who points out that most of the teams that will have cap room in 2023 are young and aren’t likely to have interest in a player nearing 40. The unidentified executive expects Horford to land a two-year contract worth between $20-25MM, while another league source tells Deveney that Horford may get a three-year deal in the $40-42MM range with the final year as a partial guarantee or a player option.

An Eastern Conference executive believes the Celtics’ offer to Horford will depend on how much they have to pay to keep Grant Williams, who is headed for restricted free agency.

“Right now, you’re paying those guys $30MM,” the executive said. “They don’t want to add a bunch of salary, so if you can keep them below $30MM in starting money next year, it is not a bad situation. Other guys are going up, so you’d like to save where you can. If you start Williams at $16-17MM or so, you can go to $11-12MM for Al and still keep yourself around $180MM in payroll. They want both of those guys around so they have to think about them as a sliding scale.”

There’s more on the Celtics:

Boston has the league’s best record at 13-3 and has figured out how to win with limited production from Jayson Tatum, notes Souichi Terada of MassLive. The Celtics posted back-to-back wins over the Hawks and Pelicans this week with Tatum limited to 19 points in each game on subpar shooting. Derrick White and Payton Pritchard have filled in with Malcolm Brogdon and Marcus Smart hurt, and the team is also getting valuable bench minutes from Williams, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet.
Jaylen Brown credits the success to trust from new head coach Joe Mazzulla, per Brian Robb of MassLive. Whenever the Celtics hit a rough patch, Mazzulla usually prefers to let the players work through it rather than calling a timeout. “It challenges us for not only the situation at hand in front of us but to be better down the line,” Brown said. “We’ve been in the NBA long enough to know how to get to our spots and how to correct some of our mistakes. We have a poised team so that’s a lot of trust from our head coach that he instills in our players and us to figure it out. To be honest, that’s what you want as a player. You want that relationship with your head coach that he’ll trust you out there that you’ll figure it out.”
With nine straight wins, the Celtics appear to have solved their crunch-time rotation questions, according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Tatum’s ability to fill multiple roles makes the team hard to defend with the game on the line, Weiss adds.

Joe Mazzulla Expected To Remain Celtics’ Head Coach Beyond 2022/23

November 17th, 2022 at 11:45am CST by Rory Maher

Joe Mazzulla is expected to have his interim tag removed and sign a long-term contract to remain head coach of the Celtics, supplanting the suspended Ime Udoka, but it may not occur until after the 2022/23 season ends, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported (video link) on SportsCenter on Wednesday (hat tip to RealGM).

“Everything is aligned and in place for Joe Mazzulla to be the long-term coach for the Boston Celtics, except for one thing: Ime Udoka is technically still the head coach of the Boston Celtics, on suspension,” said Wojnarowski. “For all intents and purposes, he has coached his last game in Boston. This is uncharted territory, certainly. Unless Ime Udoka takes another job this season elsewhere, it still may be an interim label until the end of the year.

“Mazzulla has handled this very well. He has a locker room of key players who were very fond of Udoka and still very fond of him. (Mazzulla) has certainly navigated that. He had his own relationships. You have seen him command the respect of this group, but how this team has performed. Continuing at a very high level.

“There’s every indication that interim status will eventually leave and he’ll be on a long-term deal as the Celtics’ coach, but it may not be until after the season.”

While this may have been surprising news prior to the season considering Udoka led the Celtics to the NBA Finals as a first-time head coach in ’21/22, as Wojnarowski noted, Boston hasn’t missed a beat under Mazzulla, currently sporting the NBA’s best record at 12-3. The Celtics have the No. 1 ranked offense and best net rating (plus-7.7) in the league thus far, per NBA.com.

Mazzulla was an assistant with the Celtics for three seasons prior to being named interim head coach. At 34 years old, he’s the youngest head coach in the NBA (he’s six months younger than Jazz head coach Will Hardy, who is also 34).

In addition to being seemingly unfazed by the controversy of Udoka’s suspension, Mazzulla has navigated long-term injuries to free agent acquisition Danilo Gallinari (offseason torn ACL) and starting big man Robert Williams (offseason knee surgery). Both players have yet to play this season, with Gallinari likely to miss the entire ’22/23 season.

Speaking of Williams, Abby Chin of NBC Sports Boston reported last night (via Twitter) that the big man hasn’t experienced any setbacks during his recovery process and has been cleared for non-contact work. Williams told Chin that his return timeline remains unchanged.

The Celtics announced that Williams would miss eight-to-12 weeks in late September, so that’s the timeline he’s referring to, though a report last month indicated he might be out longer than that after receiving a PRP injection. Either way, it’s an encouraging sign for Williams that things appear to be on track after March meniscus surgery limited him during last season’s playoff run.

Celtics Notes: Tatum, Brogdon, Mazzulla, Offense

November 14th, 2022 at 5:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jayson Tatum has certainly placed himself firmly in the Most Valuable Player discussion while averaging 32.3 points per game so far this season. The Celtics forward told Yahoo Sports’ Vince Goodwill he wants people to think of him as an MVP-level performer.

“As a kid, was one of my dreams winning MVP? Sure,” Tatum said. “If it happened, it would be a dream come true. But it wasn’t, like, ‘Come back, win MVP.’ It’s like, ‘Come back, get to the championship.’”

We have more on the Celtics:

Malcolm Brogdon hasn’t played since Wednesday and the point guard will remain out on Monday due to right hamstring tightness, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman tweets. Brogdon is averaging 13.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per night in his first season with Boston.
Joe Mazzulla was thrust into a difficult situation when the team suspended head coach Ime Udoka for a season. The Boston’s Globe Gary Washburn believes that Muzzulla has handled it so well that he deserves to have the interim tag removed. Not only has the team thrived with him at the helm, he has approached the job with the kind of humility and respect it deserves, Washburn notes.
The Celtics entered Monday’s action ranked first in points per game and second in field goal percentage. Ethan Fuller of the Basketball News takes a closer look at why the team’s offense has been so efficient.

Atlantic Notes: Thybulle, Kyrie, Reddish, Mazzulla

October 29th, 2022 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

Given his offensive shortcomings, it was understandable that Matisse Thybulle wasn’t part of the Sixers‘ regular rotation early in the season, but the team’s defensive woes made it clear he needed to get a shot, Rich Hofmann of The Athletic wrote ahead of Friday’s game in Toronto.

Thybulle got that shot on Friday. After playing just six scoreless minutes in the team’s first five games, the fourth-year wing logged 22 minutes in Philadelphia’s win over the Raptors and held his own on both ends of the court. Thybulle initially passed up on one open three-point opportunity, then had another blocked, but he responded by continuing to shoot and made a pair of attempts from beyond the arc.

“The old me would have folded in that moment,” Thybulle said, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Like you pass up, you get a little shook on your first attempt. On your second attempt, you get blocked. I think the old me folds and isn’t able to show up for those next two shots and make them. So I mean, honestly, to be able to sit here and be proud of myself feels really good. And to sit in the locker room and give myself my flowers and say, ‘Yeah, you did the work and you trusted it and were able to let it come through during the game.'”

It’s a big year for Thybulle, who will be eligible for restricted free agency during the 2023 offseason after not signing a rookie scale extension with the Sixers before the season began.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

According to Alex Schiffer of The Athletic, Nets owner Joe Tsai and the team have condemned Kyrie Irving‘s social media posts promoting the 2018 film ‘Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,’ which is widely considered to be antisemitic, as Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone details. “I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of antisemitic disinformation,” Tsai tweeted. “I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
Cam Reddish hasn’t just been earning regular rotation minutes for the Knicks so far — he has also been part of some of the team’s crunch-time lineups, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. After playing nearly the full overtime period in Wednesday’s win over Charlotte, Reddish said that his confidence is “sky high,” adding that he thinks he’s “doing a pretty good job trying to find my niche.” The fourth-year forward will be eligible for restricted free agency in 2023.
Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com solicited some early opinions on Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla, and the reviews were generally positive. “Joe’s like Ime (Udoka) in the way that he’s not afraid to be straight with guys and go at them when he has to,” a source close to the situation told Bulpett. “But he also knows what went wrong last year and that there’s some basic stuff that needs fixing.” One opposing personnel source did question Mazzulla’s rotation decisions, opining that it’s too early in the season to be leaning so heavily on the team’s top seven or eight players.

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